Lyrical Moments | Singapore Wedding Photography

July 30, 2010

More reasons why Hasselblad H4D-40

Filed under: personal, photography, wedding — Tags: , , , , , , , — Stephen @ 5:52 pm

The previous post about the Hasselblad H4D-40 has officially become the most read thread on this blog ever!  There has been so much interests in it from both clients as well as photographers about this new tool that we are using.

One other thing that the Hasselblad can do very well over the 35mm DSLR is the optics that are made for it – sharpness and contrast aside, they have excellent flare control and here’s an example of what exactly I’m talking about.

 The Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L mk II probably has the best flare control in my canon range of lenses.  Lens hood were mounted on the respective lenses to minimise flare and both filters were spotlessly clean when we shot these.  Note that both the camera angle and light position were kept constant (mounted on tripod).  Camera setting are identical, ISO 400, 1/20s shutter speed, f/8 for this test.

Hasslelblad H4D-40 with 35-90mm aspherical

 

Canon 1Ds mark III with 16-35mm mk II

 

I’m sure the results speaks for itself.  The Canon suffers from contrast loss as a result of the flare, whereas the Hasselblad truly shine in this area.  That’s another 1 more point for the Hasselblad!

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February 14, 2010

Tools of the Trade – inside the Wedding Photographer’s bag (part 1)

Filed under: personal, photography, wedding — Tags: , , , , , — Stephen @ 2:51 am
“So what camera / lens do you use?”  This is probably one question that haunts me throughout my career as a professional wedding photographer, and they either come from friends, other photographers, or even my clients (occasionally).

Yes, equipment discussion is not really my cup of tea, but some of you might find this post interesting to read, maybe.  First, let me qualify myself. 

1.  This is purely for info sake.  I’m not sponsored by any photographic related companies nor paid by anyone for writing this. 

2. One should use equipment according to his /her photography style – there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all-uber-setup. 

3. These equipment that I’m reviewing are based on what I’ve used and what has worked for me.  To put it simply, this setup compliments my style of photography. 

4. Good photography is not about how well-equipped you are, it’s about how well you use your equipment. 

5. When in doubt, please refer to point #1 :)  

Ok, here’s a snap shot of my bag just before I packed the contents into my dry box. 

Equipment

What's in my bag

A. Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L Image StabliserB. Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L Mk 2

C. Canon EF 85mm f1.2L Mk2

D. Canon EF 35mm f1.4L

E. Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L

F. Canon EOS 1Ds mk 3

G. Canon EOS 5D

H. My trusty 8-year old Swiss-made blower

I. Gary Fong’s flash diffuser.  Some call it Fongdom, most of my clients call it the tupperware :D

A. Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L

One of my first Canon ‘L’ series lenses that I bought back in 2002.  Use this mainly for outdoor portraits and / or in situation where I want to compress the scene.  I don’t use this alot indoors because f2.8 is just not fast enough for me. Personally, I find this lens very useful on a dull day, especially when we want to isolate the subject from the background. For example, the photo I shot in Bath, UK

Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS 

or use to compress the scene, as in this example that I shot in Marina Barage, Singapore.

 Equipment - Lenses

or for a reasonable amount of bokeh or background blur…

Equipment

to be continued…

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October 10, 2009

Casual snapshots in Newcastle

Filed under: annoucements, personal, photography — Tags: , , — Stephen @ 4:10 pm

Greetings from UK!  I’m actually on a train traveling towards Central London – they actually have wifi onboard their National Express!

This is going to be one of the shortest trips ever, after spending 17 hours getting my butt to Newcastle from Sg yesterday, I’m spending 8 hours in Central London doing some shopping and meeting clients there, hopefully grab some funky toys from Hamleys for the boys.

Had one of the worst oil dripping fish and chips in Newcastle yesterday, but well…that gave me enough energy to take some photos around Newcastle upon Tyne)

:)

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October 8, 2009

Out of town notice

Filed under: annoucements, personal — Stephen @ 11:40 am
 As I’ll be heading to Newcastle and London tomorrow, all meetings and appointments will have to be scheduled after 20 Oct 2009. Looking forward to the cool weather there, get a short break, grab some fish & chips (& b…eer), meet client, attend an awards ceremony dinner. Oh yes, and wish me luck! :) – Stephen

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August 30, 2009

Join our Fan page on Facebook

Filed under: annoucements, personal — Tags: , , , — Stephen @ 9:54 am

After much procrastination, I’ve finally launched my own fan page on Facebook…and if you haven’t join us, please do right now, drop by and chill out :)

I’ve got some really interesting stuffs and annoucements lined up for everyone on that page, so stay tuned!

294 fans and counting already! :)

Lyrical Moments Photography on Facebook

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August 27, 2009

To London?

Filed under: annoucements, awards, personal, photography, wedding — Tags: , , , , — Stephen @ 9:26 pm

MPA and WPPI, these are the two organisers of the toughest photography competitions for wedding and portrait photographers, and looking at the previous winners from the different category, photographers like myself will probably spend days hammering out the prints, send them to USA or UK, and hope for the best.

Just received a congratulatory email from Master Photographer Association in London (MPA) that one of my images has made it to the finals for the Overseas Wedding Photographer of the Year Award!

That came together with an invitation to the awards ceremony in London come Oct 2009.

However, much as I would love to attend the awards ceremony, as well as see the other finalists and winner’s print next to mine, plus the chance to mingle with some of the veterans in this biz, I happened to have an assignment overseas.  The biggest irony is, both the clients happened to be based in London, but their wedding will be held in their hometown back in Asia.

Good news and bad news come in a pair, usually.

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To jack tob, jackson tobias, jack fruit or whoever you wanna call yourself

Filed under: personal — Stephen @ 2:52 pm

I receive approximately 20-30 spams daily on my blog and there we have, this chap who caught my attention, and he obviously bothered to copy the same spam and post it 3 times in a month, after I deleted each of them.

Oh yes, the emails that this chap used are jacktob30@yahoo.com and jacktob191@yahoo.com , both of which are non-existent.  So that makes me wonder what his/her real name is. 

But one thing remains the same, the IP address 203.126.56.6 that brings us to National Cancer Centre Singapore;  managed to pull some strings in one of the forums and viola, some fella who calls himself /herself a healthcare professional happens to share the same IP address. Healthcare professional and National Cancer Centre Singapore might be coincidental, of course the IP address, well…. :)

So here’s to Jackson Tobias, jack tob or jack fruit or whatever fruit you wanna call yourself, I don’t know what you have against wedding photographers, but just let you know that your words means nothing, since you’re as good as a ghost, nothing.  Call the Clubsnap Live @Sam workshop a joke or a waste of your time for all I care, there are dozens of other appreciative attendees who have emailed or sent me notes to express their thanks.

Yet another classic example of nameless individuals, hiding behind their computer screens and ranting off, which is why the spam queue is the only place such posts will go to.

PS: On hindside, thanks for taking so much interest in my blog and contributing to my hits :)

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